As an on-again, off-again trade war threatens rising costs for imported foreign-made outdoor recreation products, there’s a glimmer of a silver lining in the looming storm clouds.
For years, outdoor gear makers and secondhand store owners have hailed re-commerce — they also call it the circular economy — as a model for sustainable business that reduces waste, minimizes environmental impacts and delivers less-pricey offerings to newcomers exploring the outdoors. There’s hope that potentially soaring prices for new stuff could fuel the long-simmering secondhand gear market.
Now, with the price of new gear set to spike, refurbished equipment is poised to become a viable economic pillar for the $28 billion outdoor retail industry.
“No doubt in my mind that if the consumer pulls back, we will absolutely see an uptick in the circular economy,” said Outdoor Industry Association research director Kelly Davis, who has spent decades tracking outdoor retail and participation trends. “Reselling gear at prices that people who are struggling can afford, that sounds like a pretty good deal. And it’s a bonus that it’s good for the environment. Maybe this will help us think harder about the waste we produce. Maybe this is an opportunity for the industry.”
As the stuttering tariffs threaten global supply chains and the yearlong process of developing, selling and manufacturing outdoor apparel and gear, it’s too early to accurately assess the impacts of a looming trade war. And the retail industry is carefully watching consumers, wondering if they will rein in spending if prices climb and economic horizons darken. Uncertainty reigns right now and that, in and of itself, is threatening.
“The unfortunate reality is that it’s going to cost more to make a jacket and make a pair of skis and those costs will get pushed to consumers. There is a shock coming to a lot of consumers,” says Aaron Provine, the president of the secondhand online marketplace Geartrade.com, which has seen surging numbers of outdoor users buying and selling in the past two years. “That means a lot of people are going to start shopping used markets. We have not started to see the potential headwinds or benefits — I think the market is still too dynamic right now — but if these tariffs do stick, it will push more people into the resale market.”
A $28 billion industry
The outdoor retail market has been on a roller coaster since 2020, with a big spike during the pandemic as everyone stocked up for outdoor play, followed by a slump and now a modest rebound.
Outdoor retail sales hit $28 billion in 2024, up 1% from 2023. Equipment sales were down while footwear and casual categories — versus technical gear typically purchased by core outdoor enthusiasts — climbed.
Tersus Solutions fulfillment services worker Ana De Anda organizes the fully recycled items ready for sale in packages on the warehouse floor, June 12, 2024, in Englewood. (Hugh Carey, The Colorado Sun)“The center of gravity in the outdoor industry has shifted,” the Outdoor Industry Association president Kent Ebersole said in an online presentation of the 2025 Outdoor Retailer Sales Trends Report last month. “Growth isn’t being driven by core users anymore. It’s the casual outdoorists; the weekend hikers, the car campers, the folks who wear trail runners to the office and a puffy to the coffee shop who are showing up in the numbers.”
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The first three months of 2025 has seen relatively stable purchasing in outdoor shops and e-commerce sites, with shops reporting similar sales to the previous year. But the stability could be waning in the chaos. Early indications show declining sales in April, with some online-selling outdoor brands reporting a slowdown as tariffs and economic uncertainty pinch consumer spending.
“Interestingly, brands with resale or circularity programs appear more insulated from external pressures like tariffs,” said Charlie Lozner, the head of digital media for Carbondale-based Backbone, a marketing agency that works with dozens of outdoor brands. Lozner said one of Backbone’s clients reported resale revenue climbing 70% in April compared with the same month in 2024.
Proponents of re-commerce and circularity, which involves brands making high-quality gear with the hopes that the initial buyer may hand it down to a second user, are hardly cheering yet another layer of taxes on Asia-made stuff. And again, the building storm clouds threaten anyone who is selling anything.
“We’re in a period of extreme uncertainty, and when that happens, people simply spend less money across the board,” said Jimmy Funkhouser, who opened his outdoor shop in a north Denver bungalow in 2016 and has grown his Feral Mountain Co. business into a national model for re-commerce. “On the aggregate, I expect the secondhand market to continue to grow for the next several years, and this could be an additional catalyst for that growth. But if the economy craters, that’s bad news for everyone. Including Feral.”
“The future of consumption”
Over at the Tersus factories in Denver and Englewood, huge machines use liquid CO2 — not water — to clean millions of pounds of textiles for major brands like Patagonia, Nike and Adidas. In the past three months, the number of brands tapping the innovative Tersus technology to repair and clean gear and clothing for resale has doubled, Tersus boss Peter Whitcomb said.
Peter Whitcomb, CEO of Tersus Solutions, talks with colleagues on the the warehouse floor, June 12, 2024, in Englewood. (Hugh Carey, The Colorado Sun)“We are seeing brands that in the past have not even returned our phone calls, they are reaching out and saying, ‘we know we have to do this now,’” Whitcomb said. “The tariff environment is forcing that conversation.”
It’s a drum Whitcomb — and environmentally conscious brands like Patagonia and The North Face — has been beating for years: Make durable, high-quality stuff that can be repaired and cleaned and you can build a secondhand market that will give brands a chance to sell an $800 jacket or $1,200 tent twice, three times or even more.
“The brands that know — like The North Face, Arcteryx and Lululemon — they are doubling down on their re-commerce business,” Whitcomb said. “Every one of their consumers becomes a little supply chain. Your garage is a small supply chain. There are hundreds of millions of products out there that have a lot of life left in them. Let’s get them back. They might be more profitable than the tariff-laden supply chain right now. This is the future of consumption. The younger generation, this is how they shop.”
Another silver lining for outdoor recreation
And about that younger generation. The outdoor industry has been scrapping to both lure and retain newcomers. It’s pretty locked in with aging, wealthier white folks. The pandemic drew record numbers of Americans outdoors. Outdoor gear makers and retailers are laboring to keep them on the hook.
Davis, with the Outdoor Industry Association, said participation is up again in 2024, setting yet another record on a multiyear participation streak that has been a bright spot in the roiling outdoor industry. Her early numbers — which she plans to announce next month — show an all-time high of 181.1 million Americans going outside to recreate last year. Participation has been climbing since 2020, after the industry’s decades-long struggle to get more people outside. (Since the 1990s the country’s outdoor brands and retailers have been unable to get more than half of the nation’s population to play outdoors.)
Davis said the growth is across the board, with increased participation in every demographic and user type.
Yes, outdoor retail brands and shop owners are facing a dark stretch ahead. But if they can hang on — and maybe re-commerce is a survival tool for weathering the coming storm — there are blue skies ahead, Davis said.
“This is going to be rough but we are gaining participants. When this bounces back we are going to have a bigger market and maybe some new ideas about sustainability,” she said. “Because more people are going to be outside, it makes sense to keep outdoor customers engaged and build that community. If we can make it through this there will be a time when everyone will need new stuff. We need to take care of this new audience. Maybe that includes the circular economy.”
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